Just waking up with dry, flaky, red, inflamed, irritated skin every morning immediately puts hundreds of thoughts into my mind.

What can I do today to look “normal”?

What can I do to look presentable to society to reduce the amount of stares and questions I may get asked in public?

Most of the times, we itch and scratch, apply everything and anything to look normal on the outside to get on with our day to day. It’s hell of a lot easier to stay and hide home, but that ain’t feasible.

If I were to do that during my school days (highschool, university, etc) I would still be in school because my skin was never “perfect”.

If I were to do that during my career, all my sick days and vacation days would have been exhausted by now.

What did I do?

I took a short-term sick leave from work until I was able to manage the day to day.

Even after joining work on a part time basis, it wasn’t easy.

My skin was still red, oozing here and there but I felt okay enough to go back.

What did taking a break do for me?

It gave me the peace of mind to actually deal with TSW.

Instead of waking up to an alarm after barely any sleep, I didn’t need to stress about work or worrying about what I needed to do to look presentable.

I wasn’t at the stage where I couldn’t give zero F’s about what people thought of me or how they viewed me. I always wondered what people thought when they looked at my TSW skin.

Just waking up was a mission itself, my skin hurt, my muscles hurt, moving hurt. As soon as I started moving, the itching would start and the constant uncomfortableness started all over again.

Instead of worrying about all those things, I was able to focus on myself and health. Giving it the mental and physical rest it needed.

I was fortunate enough to take time off from work.

If you aren’t in a position like that, just remember to take some time off whenever you can.

Whether it’s using a sick day, one vacation day, working with your HR department, taking a semester off, taking a half day, saying no to going out, just remember to…